1,007 research outputs found
A Tunable Echelle Imager
We describe and evaluate a new instrument design called a Tunable Echelle
Imager (TEI). In this instrument, the output from an imaging Fabry-Perot
interferometer is cross-dispersed by a grism in one direction and dispersed by
an echelle grating in the perpendicular direction. This forms a mosaic of
different narrow-band images of the same field on a detector. It offers a
distinct wavelength multiplex advantage over a traditional imaging Fabry-Perot
device.
Potential applications of the TEI include spectrophotometric imaging and
OH-suppressed imaging by rejection.Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, accepted by PAS
Constraints on a Universal IMF from UV to Near-IR Galaxy Luminosity Densities
We obtain constraints on the slope of a universal stellar initial mass
function (IMF) over a range of cosmic star-formation histories (SFH) using
z=0.1 luminosity densities in the range from 0.2 to 2.2 microns. The age-IMF
degeneracy of integrated spectra of stellar populations can be broken for the
Universe as a whole by using direct measurements of (relative) cosmic SFH from
high-redshift observations. These have only marginal dependence on
uncertainties in the IMF, whereas, fitting to local luminosity densities
depends strongly on both cosmic SFH and the IMF. We fit to these measurements
using population synthesis and find the best-fit IMF power-law slope to be
Gamma=1.15+-0.2 (0.5 < M/M_solar < 120). This slope is in good agreement with
the Salpeter IMF slope (Gamma=1.35). A strong upper limit of Gamma<1.7 is
obtained which effectively rules out the Scalo IMF due to its too low fraction
of high-mass stars. This upper limit is at the 99.7% confidence level if we
assume a closed-box chemical evolution scenario and 95% if we assume constant
solar metallicity. Fitting to the H-alpha line luminosity density, we obtain a
best-fit IMF slope in good agreement with that derived from broadband
measurements. Marginalizing over cosmic SFH and IMF slope, we obtain (95% conf.
ranges, h=1): omega_stars = 1.1-2.0 E-3 for the stellar mass density; rho_sfr =
0.7-4.1 E-2 M_solar/yr/Mpc^3 for the star-formation rate density, and; rho_L =
1.2-1.7 E+35 W/Mpc^3 for the bolometric, attenuated, stellar, luminosity
density (0.09-5 microns). Comparing this total stellar emission with an
estimate of the total dust emission implies a relatively modest average
attenuation in the UV (<=1 magnitude at 0.2 microns).Comment: 16 pages, accepted by Ap
The H alpha Galaxy Survey. IV. Star formation in the local Universe
We present an analysis of the star formation properties of field galaxies
within the local volume out to a recession velocity limit of 3000 km/s. A
parent sample of 863 star-forming galaxies is used to calculate a B-band
luminosity function. This is then populated with star formation information
from a subsample of 327 galaxies, for which we have H alpha imaging, firstly by
calibrating a relationship between galaxy B-band luminosity and star formation
rate, and secondly by a Monte Carlo simulation of a representative sample of
galaxies, in which star formation information is randomly sampled from the
observed subset. The total star formation rate density of the local Universe is
found to be between 0.016 and 0.023 MSun/yr/cubic Mpc, with the uncertainties
being dominated by the internal extinction correction used in converting
measured H alpha fluxes to star formation rates. If our internally derived
B-band luminosity function is replaced by one from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
blue sequence, the star formation rate densities are approx. 60% of the above
values. We also calculate the contribution to the total star formation rate
density from galaxies of different luminosities and Hubble T-types. The largest
contribution comes from bright galaxies with B absolute mag of approx. -20 mag,
and the total contribution from galaxies fainter than -15.5 mag is less than
10%. Almost 60% of the star formation rate density comes from galaxies of types
Sb, Sbc or Sc; 9% from galaxies earlier than Sb and 33% from galaxies later
than Sc. Finally, 75 - 80% of the total star formation in the local Universe is
shown to be occurring in disk regions, defined as being >1 kpc from the centres
of galaxies.Comment: 12 pages, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic
A Magellan-IMACS-IFU Search for Dynamical Drivers of Nuclear Activity. I. Reduction Pipeline and Galaxy Catalog
Using the Inamori Magellan Areal Camera and Spectrograph (IMACS)
integral-field unit (IFU) on the 6.5m Magellan telescope, we have designed the
first statistically significant investigation of the two-dimensional
distribution and kinematics of ionized gas and stars in the central kiloparsec
regions of a well-matched sample of Seyfert and inactive control galaxies
selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The goals of the project are to use
the fine spatial sampling (0.2 arcsec/pixel) and large wavelength coverage
(4000-7000A) of the IMACS-IFU to search for dynamical triggers of nuclear
activity in the central region where active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity and
dynamical timescales become comparable, to identify and assess the impact of
AGN-driven outflows on the host galaxy and to provide a definitive sample of
local galaxy kinematics for comparison with future three-dimensional kinematic
studies of high-redshift systems. In this paper, we provide the first detailed
description of the procedure to reduce and calibrate data from the IMACS-IFU in
`long mode' to obtain two-dimensional maps of the distribution and kinematics
of ionized gas and stars. The sample selection criteria are presented,
observing strategy described and resulting maps of the sample galaxies
presented along with a description of the observed properties of each galaxy
and the overall observed properties of the sample.Comment: 62 pages. 41 figures. 5 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJS.
High-resolution version available at:
http://www.astro.ljmu.ac.uk/~pbw/IMACS-IFU/IMACS-1-highRes.pd
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): curation and reanalysis of 16.6k redshifts in the G10/COSMOS region
We discuss the construction of the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) 10h region (G10) using publicly available data in the Cosmic Evolution Survey region (COSMOS) in order to extend the GAMA survey to z ∼ 1 in a single deg2 field. In order to obtain the maximum number of high precision spectroscopic redshifts we re-reduce all archival zCOSMOS-bright data and use the GAMA automatic cross-correlation redshift fitting code autoz. We use all available redshift information (autoz, zCOSMOS-bright 10k, PRIMUS, VVDS, SDSS and photometric redshifts) to calculate robust best-fitting redshifts for all galaxies and visually inspect all 1D and 2D spectra to obtain 16 583 robust redshifts in the full COSMOS region. We then define the G10 region to be the central ∼1 deg2 of COSMOS, which has relatively high spectroscopic completeness, and encompasses the CHILES VLA region. We define a combined r < 23.0 mag and i < 22.0 mag G10 sample (selected to have the highest bijective overlap) with which to perform future analysis, containing 9861 sources with reliable high-precision VLT-VIMOS spectra. All tables, spectra and imaging are available at http://ict.icrar.org/cutout/G10
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): growing up in a bad neighbourhood - how do low-mass galaxies become passive?
Both theoretical predictions and observations of the very nearby Universe
suggest that low-mass galaxies (log[M/M]<9.5) are likely
to remain star-forming unless they are affected by their local environment. To
test this premise, we compare and contrast the local environment of both
passive and star-forming galaxies as a function of stellar mass, using the
Galaxy and Mass Assembly survey. We find that passive fractions are higher in
both interacting pair and group galaxies than the field at all stellar masses,
and that this effect is most apparent in the lowest mass galaxies. We also find
that essentially all passive log[M/M]<8.5 galaxies are
found in pair/group environments, suggesting that local interactions with a
more massive neighbour cause them to cease forming new stars. We find that the
effects of immediate environment (local galaxy-galaxy interactions) in forming
passive systems increases with decreasing stellar mass, and highlight that this
is potentially due to increasing interaction timescales giving sufficient time
for the galaxy to become passive via starvation. We then present a simplistic
model to test this premise, and show that given our speculative assumptions, it
is consistent with our observed results.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures, Accepted to MNRA
Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): maximum likelihood determination of the luminosity function and its evolution
We describe modifications to the joint stepwise maximum likelihood method of Cole (2011) in order to simultaneously fit the GAMA-II galaxy luminosity function (LF), corrected for radial density variations, and its evolution with redshift. The whole sample is reasonably well-fit with luminosity (Qe) and density (Pe) evolution parameters Qe, Pe = 1.0, 1.0 but with significant degeneracies characterized by Qe = 1.4 - 0.4Pe. Blue galaxies exhibit larger luminosity density evolution than red galaxies, as expected. We present the evolution-corrected r-band LF for the whole sample and for blue and red sub-samples, using both Petrosian and Sersic magnitudes. Petrosian magnitudes miss a substantial fraction of the flux of de Vaucouleurs profile galaxies: the Sersic LF is substantially higher than the Petrosian LF at the bright end
Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Redshift Space Distortions from the Clipped Galaxy Field
We present the first cosmological measurement derived from a galaxy density field subject to a `clipping' transformation. By enforcing an upper bound on the galaxy number density field in the Galaxy and Mass Assembly survey (GAMA), contributions from the nonlinear processes of virialisation and galaxy bias are greatly reduced. This leads to a galaxy power spectrum which is easier to model, without calibration from numerical simulations. We develop a theoretical model for the power spectrum of a clipped field in redshift space, which is exact for the case of anisotropic Gaussian fields. Clipping is found to extend the applicability of the conventional Kaiser prescription by more than a factor of three in wavenumber, or a factor of thirty in terms of the number of Fourier modes. By modelling the galaxy power spectrum on scales k < 0.3 h/Mpc and density fluctuations we measure the normalised growth rate
Examining the pathways for young people with drug and alcohol dependence: A mixed-method design to examine the role of a treatment programme
© BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved. Introduction: Young people with drug and alcohol problems are likely to have poorer health and other psychosocial outcomes than other young people. Residential treatment programmes have been shown to lead to improved health and related outcomes for young people in the short term. There is very little robust research showing longer term outcomes or benefits of such programmes. This paper describes an innovative protocol to examine the longer term outcomes and experiences of young people referred to a residential life management and treatment programme in Australia designed to address alcohol and drug issues in a holistic manner. Methods and analysis: This is a mixed-methods study that will retrospectively and prospectively examine young people's pathways into and out of a residential life management programme. The study involves 3 components: (1) retrospective data linkage of programme data to health and criminal justice administrative data sets, (2) prospective cohort (using existing programme baseline data and a follow-up survey) and (3) qualitative in-depth interviews with a subsample of the prospective cohort. The study will compare findings among young people who are referred and (a) stay 30 days or more in the programme (including those who go on to continuing care and those who do not); (b) start, but stay fewer than 30 days in the programme; (c) are assessed, but do not start the programme. Ethics and dissemination: Ethics approval has been sought from several ethics committees including a university ethics committee, state health departments and an Aboriginal-specific ethics committee. The results of the study will be published in peer-reviewed journals, presented at research conferences, disseminated via a report for the general public and through Facebook communications. The study will inform the field more broadly about the value of different methods in evaluating programmes and examining the pathways and trajectories of vulnerable young people
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